Grant: Alliance Grants

The aviation industry is moving toward reducing flight crews to a single pilot, primarily focusing on cost reduction. This paradigm shift requires a comprehensive investigation into the human factors associated with enhanced flight deck autonomy and the transition toward Single Pilot Operation (SPO). SymbIA adopts a human-centric approach to address these challenges. Over a period of three years, it will focus on the following main objectives: 1. Develop Human-Autonomy Teaming strategies to improve the pilot's situational awareness and bidirectional communication; 2. Investigate pilot state monitoring to support dynamic task allocation; and 3. Develop an SPO evaluation test platform to assess autonomous agents in realistic aviation scenarios. SymbIA brings together 2 academic partners - Polytechnique Montréal and Concordia University and three industrial partners - Bombardier, Collins, and Cert Center Canada (3C). This project will leverage the autonomous flight vehicle developed by the National Research Council (NRC) and their expertise in human-autonomy research to develop the SPO test platform. SymbIA involves a total of 7 HQP, comprising 1 postdoc, 5 Ph.D. candidates, and 1 M.Sc.A. student, specializing in human factors, flight deck design, and avionics development. This project will benefit industrial partners by increasing technical insights and providing potential solutions to many of today's cockpit challenges related to increased automation and improved safety. This evidence-based approach will help Canada expand its leadership in the aviation industry in the fields of human factors, avionics, and AI-driven automation, positioning the country at the forefront of the digital transformation of the flight deck.